The Marion County Sheriff’s Office says DNA has helped solve a cold case homicide from 1973. In November 1973, Swedish national, Nina “Nadine” Fischer, was sexually assaulted and murdered in her San Rafael home while her husband was away at work.

The case went cold due to a lack of investigative leads. In 2021, MCSO’s Investigations Division sent the case to the California Department of Justice’s Familial Search Program. After multiple months, the Familial Search Program provided MCSO with an investigative lead.

MCSO says the investigation spanned the next three years and identified the suspect as Idaho resident Michael Eugene Mullen. On August 14, 2024, 75-year-old Mullen was arrested for the murder of Nina Fischer.

He was booked into the Lemhi County Jail where he awaits extradition to California.